LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

GIFT 

Class 


THE 


Revolutions   of  1688 
and  1776 


BY  FREDERICK  MAY  HOLLAND, 

Author  of  "  Liberty   in    the    Nineteenth    Century." 


Boston  Investigator  Co. 
1902 


THE  REVOLUTIONS  OF  1688  AND  1776. 


I.  The  collapse  of  Puritanism  enabled  the  theatres  to  re 
open.  Actresses  gave  a  new  fascination  to  the  stage;  and 
even  Shakespeare  seemed  likely  to  be  eclipsed  by  Dryden. 
The  century  ended  as  it  had  begun,  in  a  blaze  of  secular  litera 
ture.  The  Roundheads  had  only  put  a  dark  period  between 
two  bright  ones;  and  in  the  end  the  Reformation  in  England 
was  conquered  by  the  Renaissance.  Science  languished  even 
worse  than  poetry  in  the  shadow  of  theology.  Bacon  had  no 
successor;  and  Englishmen  were  slow  to  notice  the  mighty 
books  in  which  Descartes  taught  the  dependence  of  life  and 
motion  on  mechanical  laws,  as  well  as  the  necessity  of  observa 
tion  and  experience  for  making  knowledge  accurate.  It  was 
his  method  which  Newton  followed  in  the  "Principia";  and 
this  momentous  demonstration  of  the  universal  power  of  grav 
itation  throughout  the  solar  system  could  not,  in  all  probability, 
have  been  published,  or  perhaps  even  written,  without  the  co 
operation  established  among  friends  of  science  in  1660.  Then 
the  members  of  what  had  hitherto  been  only  a  private  club 
were  able  to  form  the  Royal  Society,  hold  public  meetings,  and 
publish  reports  of  important  experiments.  One  of  the  books 
which  it  sanctioned  proved  that  comets  return  with  a  regularity 
which  shows  them  to  be  feigns  of  the  omnipotence  of  law,  and 
not  of  the  divine  wrath. 


228266 


2  THE  REVOLUTIONS  OF   1688   AND    1776. 

Not  until  the  publication  of  Newton's  "Principia"  in  1687, 
however,  was  the  fact  clearly  established  that  the  world  is  not 
governed  by  arbitrary  fiats,  but  according  to  fixed  laws  every 
where  in  force.  These  laws  were  acknowledged  to  be  working 
for  the  general  happiness  of  mankind;  and  thus  faith  in  the 
universal  fatherhood  of  God  began  to  drive  away  the  fancy  that 
he  wished  his  servants  to  slaughter  whoever  would  not  worship 
him  precisely  ss  they  did.  Thus  Newton  did  much  to  increase 
the  influence  of  the  books  published  late  in  the  century  by 
Penn,  Locke,  Spinoza,  and  many  other  authors,  to  prove  that 
religion  is  holy  enough  to  have  a  right  to  grow  freely.  The 
"Principia"  was  the  death-warrant  of  persecution.  Political 
freedom,  also,  was  guaranteed  by  the  advance  of  science. 
Early  nations  knew  almost  as  little  about  kings  who  rule  ac 
cording  to  the  laws  of  the  land,  as  about  a  God  who  rules 
according  to  the  laws  of  the  universe;  but  England  was  now 
beginning  to  see  that  the  best  of  all  governments,  whether  on 
earth  or  in  heaven,  is  that  which  is  most  in  harmony  with  im 
partial  laws. 

II.  The  Royal  Society  was  protected  against  bigots  by  a 
king  who  was  much  more  interested  in  science  than  in  either 
theology  or  politics.  He  was  too  indolent,  as  well  as  too  fond 
of  dissipation,  to  rule  as  despotically  as  he  might  have  done  in 
the  reaction  against  the  regicides.  No  more  taxes  were  levied 
without  authority  from  Parliament;  local  self-government  was 
re-established  throughout  Great  Britain ;  and  arbitrary  impris 
onment  was  forbidden  by  the  A.ct  of  Habeas  Corpus.  The 
Merry  Monarch  was  too  irreligious  to  be  intolerant;  but  ho 
suffered  many  harmless  Quakers  to  die  in  prison,  and  the  Puri 
tans  were  persecuted  cruelly  by  the  vindictive  Episcopalians. 
There  were  thousands  of  martyrs  in  Scotland,  where  the  people 
had  been  loyal  to  this  heartless  king  from  the  first.  It  was  by 
no  means  to  the  detriment  of  religious  liberty,  however,  that 


THE   REVOLUTIONS  OF   1688   AND   1776.  3 

the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay  lost  her  charter  in  punish 
ment  for  obstinately  forbidding  members  of  the  Church  of 
England  to  vote  or  to  hold  public  worship.  Independent*, 
Presbyterians  arid  Episcopalians  agreed  in  nothing  more  zeal 
ously  than  in  hating  the  Catholics.  Many  were  the  executions 
under  false  charges  of  having  formed  a  "Popish  Plot". 

III.  It  was  during  a  reaction  against  this  bloodshed  that 
James  II.  mounted  the  throne.  Attempts  had  been  made  to 
exclude  him  because  he  was  a  Catholic;  but  he  was  able  to  as 
sume  unconstitutional  power  by  the  loyalty  of  the  Episco 
palians,  whose  clergy  preached  passive  obedience.  lie  repaid 
them  by  appointing  members  of  his  own  denomination  to  lucra 
tive  places  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  which  were  held  as  pri 
vate  property  by  Anglican  ecclesiastics.  Among  the  remon 
strants  against  this  violation  of  the  law  was  Xewton,  who  had 
but  just  published  the  "Principia".  The  king  went  on  dealing 
with  magistracies  and  offices  in  the  army  as  well  as  in  the 
Church,  as  unscrupulously  as  any  American  politician.  He 
had  tried  to  please  tbe  most  narrow  of  Episcopalians  by  perse 
cuting  unto  death  the  Presbyterians;  but  now  the  doctrine  of 
passive  obedience  was  losing  efficacy,  and  he  turned  for  help  to 
the  Puritans.  They  scorned  his  offer  to  set  aside  every  law 
either  to  their  injury  or  that  of  the  Catholics.  He  commanded 
that  his  proclamation  of  tolerance  be  read  in  all  churches. 
There  was  a  general  refusal,  and  seven  bishops  remonstrated. 
They  were  sent  to  the  Tower,  but  their  trial  had  no  result  ex 
cept  to  make  the  tyrant  more  unpopular.  Almost  everyone 
hoped  that  the  crown  would  soon  be  inherited  by  a  Protestant 
prince,  William  of  Orange;  but  the  king  announced  that  he 
had  a  son;  and  there  were  no  witnesses  except  members  of  a 
Church  which  was  supposed  to  keep  no  faith  with  heretics. 
Pious  fraud  seemed  probable;  and  there  was  a  universal  wel 
come  to  William,  who  landed  in  England  with  a  Dutch  army 


4  THE  REVOLUTIONS   OF  1688   AND  1776. 

in  November,  1688.  James  fled  to  France,  and  the  Stuart* 
were  excluded  forever  from  the  throne  by  a  convention  in 
which  Newton  sat.  Such  were  the  circumstances  under  which 
persecution  and  despotism  ceased  to  curse  England. 

IV.  There  was  still  great  danger  that  the  Stuarts  would 
be  restored  by  the  mighty  monarch  who  then  reigned  in  France, 
and  it  was  therefore  absolutely  necessary  that  all  Britons 
should  come  into  political  fellowship,  that  they  should  enter 
into  close  alliance  with  the  Catholic  nations  hostile  to  Louis 
XIY  ,  and  that  the  vacant  throne  should  be  occupied  by  the 
deliverer  who  had  pledged  himself  to  the  maintenance  of  relig 
ious  liberty  as  ruler  of  Holland.  Accordingly  the  Toleration 
Act  of  1689  enabled  all  loyal  and  trinitarian  Protestants,  in 
cluding  Quakers,  to  hold  public  worship;  but  the  law  restrict 
ing  all  officers,  either  in  the  army  and  navy  or  in  the  civil  serv 
ice,  to  Episcopalians  remained  in  force  until  the  nineteenth 
eentury.  Catholics  were  no  longer  in  danger  of  execution; 
but  their  priests  and  schoolmasters  were  made  liable  to  impris 
onment  for  life,  and  other  adherents  of  that  faith  were  much 
harassed  by  legislation,  as  well  as  by  popular  prejudice,  in 
England,  while  they  were  atrociously  treated  in  Ireland.  De 
nial  of  the  Trinity,  of  the  truth  of  Christianity,  or  of  the  au 
thority  of  Scripture  was  punishable  with  three  years  of  impris 
onment,  according  to  a  law  often  enforced  during  the  eight 
eenth  century,  and  still  kept  up,  though  not  against  Unitarians. 
The  last  execution  under  British  rule  for  differences  about  re 
ligion  took  place  in  1697,  when  a  young  student  nam«d  Aiken- 
head  was  hanged  for  Atheistical  talk  in  Scotland,  where  Pres- 
byterianism  had  been  re-established  as  the  State  Church. 

There  was  no  important  increase  by  legislation  in  Great 
Britain,  before  the  nineteenth  century,  of  an  amount  of  relig- 
ioub  liberty  which  was  sadly  limited  in  comparison  with  what 
had  been  enjoyed  for  more  than  a  hundred  years  in  Holland. 


THE   REVOLUTIONS   OF   1688   AND   1776.  5 

This  fact  shows  that  the  grant  of  toleration,  in  1689,  was  due 
to  the  force  of  circumstances  rather  than  of  arguments;  Eng 
land  accepted  toleration  from  Holland  in  order  to  get  rid  of 
the  Stuarts.  Their  hostility  to  the  Church  had  compelled  her 
to  make  peace  with  the  Puritans;  and  the  common  feeling 
which  strengthened  the  alliance  was  hatred  —  not  of  persecu 
tion,  but  of  Catholicism.  English  Catholics  did,  however, 
gain  something  more,  like  justice  than  they  had  had  for  more 
than  a  hundred  years.  Another  important  extension  was  in 
freedom  of  the  press.  That  citadel  of  liberty  was  by  no  means 
so  much  respected  as  in  Holland.  Dutch  printers  were  under 
comparatively  few  restrictions,  and  were  thus  enabled  to  pub 
lish  half  the  books  written  in  Eurore.  Many  British  authors 
were  imprisoned  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  some  late  in 
the  nineteenth;  but  none  of  them  had  run  the  slightest  risk 
of  being  beheaded,  as  that  foremost  champion  of  political  and 
religious  equality  —  Algernon  Sydney  —  was,  in  1683,  merely 
for  writing  an  abstruse  book  which  had  not  been  published. 
Y.  Th^re  was  a  general  extension  of  constitutional  gov 
ernment  throughout  the  British  Empire  in  place  of  the  domin" 
ion  of  arbitrary  power,  and  the  increase  of  religious  liberty  wai 
especially  great  in  the  two  colonies,  which  had  been  consoli 
dated  into  that  of  Massachusetts.  Catholics  had  full  religious 
liberty  in  Canada  after  its  conquest,  in  1760;  but  they  were 
excluded  from  office  in  all  other  British  colonies  except  New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania,  and,  for  a  time,  North  Carolina.  These 
three  colonies  were  also  peculiar  in  not  having  any  State 
Church,  or  any  governor  appointed  by  the  crown.  The  com 
monwealth  founded  by  Penn  allowed  all  men  to  vote;  but 
there  were  property  qualifications  elsewhere.  The  Sabbath 
law  was  still  extremely  strict  in  Massachusetts  and  also  in 
Connecticut,  which  colony  now  included  that  originally  called 
New  Haven.  Quakers  were  no  longer  persecuted,  but  nine- 


6  THE   REVOLUTIONS  OF  1688   AND  1776. 

teen  alleged  witches  were  hung  at  Salem  in  1692.  Orthodox 
Protestants  had  liberty  of  worship  everywhere,  but  there  was 
a  social  bar  upon  unbelievers;  and  they  were  forbidden  to 
hold  office  in  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  the  Car- 
olinas.  Substantially,  this  state  of  things  was  kept  up  until 
the  time  of  the  Revolutionary  War. 

The  promulgation  of  optimism  and  latitudinarianism,  the 
almost  unbroken  ascendency  of  the  Whig  party  until  1770, 
and  the  constant  progress  of  science  united  in  giving  England 
freedom.  Nowhere  else,  except  in  Holland,  was  the  eighteenth 
century  so  early  and  peculiarly  the  philanthropic  one.  The 
rebellion  against  Charles  I.  deserved  to  fail  because  of  the  in- 
toleiance  of  the  Presbyterians,  the  asceticism  of  the  Puritans 
and  the  despotism  of  Cromwell.  The  Whigs  sought  to  estab 
lish  not  only  their  own  claims  but  the  rights  of  their  neigh 
bors;  and  by  this  they  achieved  permanent  and  glorious  suc 
cess. 

VI.  The  Revolution  of  1776  was  a  result  of  the  loss  of 
power  by  the  Whigs  after  the  accession  of  one  of  the  most 
conscientious  and  narroW'minded  of  sovereigns.  It  had  been 
hard  for  the  Americans  to  bear  the  heavy  burdens  imposed  on 
their  commerce  and  manufactures  for  the  protection  of  British 
rivals  against  competition,  but  the  injustice  of  such  laws  was 
not  yet  understood.  The  levj  of  a  direct  tax  on  newspapers 
and  legal  documents  was  a  plain  grievance;  and  the  indigna 
tion  of  the  colonists  increased  under  the  cruel  laws  passed  by 
Tory  parliaments. 

Briefly  stated,  the  Revolutionary  War  began  on  April  19, 
1775,  with  the  battle  of  Concord,  which  was  closely  followed 
by  that  on  Bunker  Hill.  New  England  was  freed  from  Brit 
ish  control  by  the  evacuation  of  Boston,  early  in  1776;  and 
the  first  stage  of  the  conflict  ended  with  the  Declaration  of 
Independence.  Among  its  most  influential  advocates  was 


THE   REVOLUTIONS  OF  1688   AND   1776.  7 

Thomas  Paine;  and  his  pamphlets  greatly  encouraged  the  pa 
triotic  army  during  the  gloomy  period  when  both  New  York 
and  Philadelphia  were  occupied  by  the  British.  They  found 
strong  support  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey,  while  Wash 
ington  was  defeated  so  badly  that  the  war  might  probably  have 
been  brought  to  a  close  if  the  royalist  general,  Sir  William 
Howe,  had  not  been,  as  he  was  called  by  his  secret  friend, 
Lee,  "the  most  indolent  of  mortals".  The  surrender  of  Bur- 
goyne  at  Saratoga,  in  October,  1777,  opened  a  third  period, 
during  which  the  Americans  were  enabled,  by  an  alliance 
with  France  to  drive  the  British  troops  out  of  all  the  region, 
between  Maryland  and  Canada  with  the  exception  of  New 
York  City.  The  fourth  act  of  this  great  drama  opened  in 
Georgia  and  closed  after  much  fighting  in  the  Carolinas  with 
the  surrender  at  Yorktown,  Va.,  in  1781,  of  the  British  army 
to  a  combined  force  of  Americans  and  French.  The  latter 
lost  twice  as  heavily  as  their  allies  in  this  campaign. 

VII.  Independence  might  have  been  won  earlier  if 
America  had  had  a  sound  currency  and  a  strong  central  gov 
ernment.  The  towns  and  colonies  had  been  so  firmly  organ 
ized  from  the  first  that  there  was  not  much  lawlessness,  and 
the  rights  of  the  new  States  were  guaranteed  fully  by  the  na 
tional  Constitution,  still  in  force.  No  country  of  much  size 
had  had  so  good  a  right  to  call  itself  a  republic.  The  Declara 
tion  of  1776  that  "all  men  are  created  equal"  was  carried  out 
without  any  limitation  on  account  of  religion  or  occupation; 
but  it  was  only  very  gradually  that  equality  before  the  law 
could  be  established  without  regard  to  time  —  honored  privi 
leges  of  race  and  sex.  Scarcely  any  claim  had  been  made 
that  women  were  entitled  to  the  benefit  of  the  principle  that 
a  just  government  must  have  "the  consent  of  the  governed". 
Female  freeholders  were  allowed  to  vote  for  President  in  New 
Jersey,  but  the  right  was  soon  taken  away;  and  little  was  at- 


8  THE   REVOLUTIONS   OF  1688   AND   1776, 

tempted  before  1848  for  the  relief  of  the  suppressed  sex. 
Negro  slavery  existed  in  all  the  thirteen  colonies  until  1780. 
In  that  year,  Massachusetts  and  Pennsylvania  followed  the 
example  of  Vermont,  which  had  passed  an  act  of  emancipa 
tion  in  1777,  though  not  yet  admitted  to  the  Confederacy. 
Measures  for  extinction  of  slavery  were  taken  by  the  remain 
ing  States  in  New  England  in  1784,  by  New  York  in  1799  and 
by  New  Jersey  in  1804.  One  of  the  last  acts  of  the  Confeder 
ate  Congress  was  to  provide  that  there  should  never  be  any 
•laves  in  the  territory  north  of  the  Ohio;  Maryland,  Virginia 
and  Delaware  seemed  almost  ready  to  become  free  States,  and 
there  was  strong  desire  everywhere  except  in  Georgia  and  the 
Carolinas  for  suppressing  importations  of  negroes  from  Africa. 

The  framera  of  the  Constitution  agreed  to  provide  for  the 
recovery  of  fugitives  from  labor,  but  there  was  much  differ 
ence  of  opinion  as  to  whether  any  State  should  have  represen 
tatives  for  its  slaves;  and  the  compromise  by  which  three-fifths 
were  enumerated  was  accepted  with*  general  dissatisfaction. 
An  even  worse  bargain  was  made  between  Connecticut  with 
Massachusetts,  on  one  hand,  and  Georgia  with  the  Carolinas, 
on  the  other.  The  latter  States  opposed  prohibition  of  the 
slave  trade  so  violently  that  formation  of  the  Union  seemed 
impossible;  and  they  also  resisted  the  attempt  of  New  Eng 
land  to  have  her  manufacturers  aided  by  duties  high  enough 
to  check  importation  from  Europe.  A  tariff  was  a  necessity, 
but  the  Southerners  insisted  that  it  be  arranged  purely  for 
raising  revenue,  and  that  no  unnecessary  restrictions  on  com 
merce  be  imposed  except  by  a  vote  of  two-thirds  of  each  branch 
of  Congress.  The  rights  of  whites  as  well  as  blacks  were  vio- 
olated  by  a  compromise  which  made  the  slave  trade  legal  until 
1808,  and  put  no  limit  to  the  imposition  of  protective  duties 
by  a  mere  majority. 

The  principle  that  the  Government  ought  not  to  interfere 


THE   REVOLUTIONS   OF  1688  AND   1776.  9 

with  the  honest  business  of  the  citizens,  or  depress  any  indus 
try  in  order  to  subsidize  others,  was  not  ignored  entirely. 
The  new  Constitution  forbade  Congress  to  tax  exports,  or  re 
strict  commerce  between  the  States;  and  these  latter  were  no 
longer  permitted  to  make  even  tariffs  for  revenue.  Thus  free 
trade  was  established  over  so  large  an  area,  and  with  such 
beneficial  results,  that  it  was  extolled  as  the  American  system 
by  Daniel  Webster  in  1824. 

VIII.  The  failure  of  the  rebels  to  revolutionize  Canada 
was  partly  due  to  their  unwillingness  to  tolerate  Catholicism 
which  had  even  been  re-established  by  Great  Britain  as  a 
State  Church  on  the  St.  Lawrence. 

Many  Americans,  however,  were  advanced  enough  to  see 
that  heretics  and  unbelievers  are  entitled  to  something  more 
than  tolerance.  That  word  had  sanctioned  the  habit  of  gov 
ernments  to  persecute.  Religion  rose  to  a  much  higher  place 
on  June  12, 1771,  when  the  convention  which  framed  the  Con 
stitution  of  Virginia  adopted  unanimously  the  section  stating 
that  "religion  can  be  directed  only  by  reason  and  conviction, 
not  by  force  or  violence,  and  therefore  all  men  are  equally  en 
titled  to  the  free  exercise  of  religion,  according  to  the  dictates 
of  conscience".  These  words  were  proposed  by  Madison,  and 
to  say  that  all  men  have  equal  rights,  as  regards  religion,  is  to 
admit  that  government  has  no  right  to  legislate  on  the  subject 
except  for  the  prevention  of  interference.  The  adoption  of 
Madison's  principle  of  religious  equality  was  followed  that 
same  fall  by  a  release  of  the  Pissenters  from  church  rates, 
episcopacy  was  soon  disestablished,  and,  in  1785,  Virginia 
passed  an  "Act  for  establishing  religious  freedom",  which  was 
written  by  Jefferson,  and  provided  that  "all  men  shall  be  free 
to  profess  and  >y  argument  to  maintain  their  opinions  in  mat 
ters  of  religion,  and  that  the  same  shall  in  no  wise  diminish, 
enlarge  or  affect  their  civil  capacities".  Thus  Virginia  was 


10  THE  REVOLUTIONS  OF  1688   AND    1776. 

first  to  declare  that  government,  in  order  to  be  really  free, 
must  be  impartial. 

Similar  views  prevailed  in  Rhode  Island,  but  that  8tat« 
made  no  new  Constitution  before  1842.  Then  the  words  of 
Jefferson  were  adopted  almost  literally.  This  was  the  only 
one  of  the  new  commonwealths  which  took  advantage  of  its 
independence  to  release  all  citizens  who  kept  the  Sabbath  on 
the  original  day  from  the  operation  of  Sunday  laws.  Jewt 
could  vote  in  Virginia,  New  Jersey,  New  York  and  Rhode 
Island.  All  four  States  were  equally  just  to  Roman  Catholics, 
and  so  were  Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware  and  Mary 
land.  That  the  three  most  advanced  States  were  Virginia, 
New  York  and  Rhode  Island  is  further  shown  by  their  uniting 
with  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey  to  keep  the  citizens  free 
from  any  taxation  for  support  of  public  worship.  There  were 
very  intolerant  enactments  in  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas,  but 
the  clergy  were  most  powerful  in  New  England,  where  their 
salaries  were  paid  by  a  general  tax.  Sabbatarian  laws  were 
strictly  enforced  outside  of  Rhode  Island,  heavy  social  penal 
ties  were  imposed  upon  unbelief,  and  blasphemy  was  still  a 
capital  crime  in  Connecticut. 

The  Congregationalism  which  was  established  in  New 
England  as  a  State  Church  had  found  a  dangerous  rival,  even 
before  the  Revolutionary  "War,  in  Methodism.  Murray  founded, 
in  1770,  the  denomination  which  has  done  more  than  all  others 
to  sweep  away  the  intolerant  fancy  of  a  hell  whose  gates  bear 
the  inscription,  "All  hope  abandon  ye  who  enter  here."  If 
there  were  no  hope  in  hell,  there  could  be  no  love  in  heaven, 
said  the  Universalists.  Quakerism  was  now  found  to  deserve 
no  persecution  but  only  honor,  and  a  choice  between  oath  and 
affirmation  was  given  in  almost  every  State. 

These  good  examples  were  followed  by  the  framers  of  the 
National  Constitution,  and  all  the  more  willingly  because  they 


THE    REVOLUTIONS   OF  1688   AND   1776.  11 

wished  to  avoid  having  the  Congregationalism  of  New  England 
fight  for  supremacy  against  the  Epiacopalianism  of  Virginia 
and  the  Carolmas.  It  was  promptly  provided  that  "no  relig 
ious  test  shall  ever  be  required  as*  a  qualification  to  any  office." 
Some  opposition  to  ratification  was  made  on  this  account  in  the 
New  England  conventions,  but  clerical  delegates  helped  win  a 
victory  for  liberty.  A  Jewish  rabbi  marched,  by  invitation,  in 
the  procession  which  celebrated  the  inauguration  of  the  Con 
stitution  in  1789,  and  the  Amendment  forbidding  any  "laws 
respecting  an  establishment  of  religion"  was  quickly  passed. 
The  first  president  signed  a  treaty  with  Tripoli,  containing  a 
statement,  which  thus  became  "the  supreme  law  of  the  land", 
namely,  that  "The  Government  of  the  United  States  is  not  in 
any  sense  founded  on  the  Christian  religion."  It  was  left  for 
agitators  a  hundred  years  later  to  attack  the  impartiality  of  the 
Constitution  as  Atheistic. 

IX.  There  was  much  difference  of  opinion  as  to  political 
equality.  Local  government  had  been  carried  on  mostly  by 
men  of  property  before  the  Revolution,  but  that  struggle  gave 
unprecedented  power  to  the  poorer  class.  The  polls  were 
thrown  open  to  all  tax-payers  by  the  new  constitutions  of  New 
Hampshire,  Vermont,  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware.  No  prop 
erty  qualification  was  required  of  mechanics  in  Gecrgia;  and 
tax-payers  who  had  resided  for  twelve  months  in  any  town  in 
North  Carolina  were  permitted  to  vote  for  members  of  their 
House  of  Commons.  These  six  States  were  in  advance  of  all 
other  communities,  except  some  of  the  Swiss  cantons,  for  they 
made  it  possible  for  men  without  property  to  elect  members  of 
Congress.  Seven  of  the  fourteen  constitutions  adopted  during 
the  war  gave  the  voter  that  shield  against  intimidation,  the 
ballot,  and  none  of  them  recognized  any  privileged  locality  or 
inherited  claim  to  office.  No  legislation  could  decide  the  ques 
tion,  whether  candidates  should  be  elected  to  office  solely  for 


12  THE    REVOLUTIONS   OF  1688   AND   1776. 

their  character,  ability  and  political  opinions,  or  whether  the 
choice  should  be  influenced  by  deference  to  wealth,  social  sta^ 
tion  and  family  connections.  The  problem  had  to  be  solved  by 
public  opinion,  and  this  was  soon  expressed  decisively. 

Our  national  Government  has  been  kept  from  falling  into 
either  anarchy  or  despotism  by  the  pressure,  ever  since  the 
adoption  of  its  Constitution,  on  one  side,  of  men  who  wished  to 
make  it  stronger,  and  on  the  other,  of  men  who  preferred  to 
keep  it  harmless.  For  the  first  twelve  years  the  popularity  of 
Washington  gave  a  supremacy  to  the  Federalists,  who  wished 
to  consolidate  the  nation,  retain  property  qualifications,  keep 
up  a  protective  tariff  and  fill  the  oflices  with  men  of  high  social 
standing.  They  called  themselves  "the  gentlemen's  party", 
and  they  had  more  right  to  this  title  than  to  that  of  "Federal 
ist".  What  they  really  wanted  was  not  a  federation  or  a  con 
federacy,  but  a  nation. 

Prominent  among  their  leaders  was  the  vice-president 
during  Washington's  two  terms,  and  president  for  the  rest  of 
the  century,  John  Adams.  He  had  been  one  of  the  foremost 
champions  of  independence;  the  treaty  which  closed  the  war 
had  been  negotiated  by  him,  and  his  casting  vote  in  the  Senate 
prevented  a  renewal  of  hostilities  with  Great  Britain.  He  was 
BO  horrified  at  the  lawlessness  and  irreligion  of  the  French  Bev- 
olutien  as  to  say,  "I  Know  not  what  to  make  of  a  republic  of 
thirty  million  Atheists";  and  at  his  inauguration,  in  1796,  he 
avowed  "a  fixed  resolution  to  consider  a  decent  respect  for 
Christianity  among  the  best  recommendations  for  the  public 
aervice." 

Two  years  later  the  Federalists  were  so  frightened  by  dan 
ger  of  war  with  France  as  to  pass  laws  which  would  have 
strengthened  the  Government  at  the  expense  of  individual  lib 
erty.  The  Alien  Act  would  have  enabled  Adams  to  banish  any 
foreigners  whom  he  "should  judge  dangerous",  if  it  had  not 


THE    REVOLUTIONS   OF  1688   AND   1776.  13 

proved  to  be  unconstitutional  He  never  enforced  it,  but  he 
was  urged  by  his  Secretary  of  State  to  use  it  against  Priestly, 
who  had  recently  been  expelled  for  love  of  liberty  from  Eng 
land,  where  he  had  made  chemistry  a  science.  Kosciusko  left 
America  in  disgust. 

Adams  did  enforce  the  Sedition  Act,  under  which  even 
American  citizens  by  birth  were  fined  and  imprisoned  for  writ 
ing  against  him  in  the  newspapers.  Among  his  victims  was  a 
member  of  Congress;  another  of  the  incarcerated  afterwards 
became  a  district  judge  in  Pennsylvania  and  President  of  the 
South  Carolina  College;  and  a  third  was  kept  in  jail  until 
Adams  went  out  of  office.  In  these  trials  the  judges  did  not 
permit  the  constitutionality  of  the  new  laws  to  be  called  in 
question.  There  was  danger  that  the  Constitution  would  be 
nullified  by  the  Federalists. 

Great  was  the  indignation  in  the  party  which  then  called 
itself  Democratic  Republican,  and  which  has  always  labored  to 
keep  the  Government  within  the  Constitution.  Prominent 
among  its  original  objects  were  the  defense  of  individual  rights, 
and  the  abolition  of  political  distinctions  between  rich  and  poor 
citizens.  Its  leader,  Jefferson,  had  risen  to  the  vice-presi 
dency  in  the  confusion  caused  by  an  underhand  attack  of 
Hamilton  on  Adams  in  1796.  That  hatred  of  despotism,  which 
had  inspired  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  "Act 
for  establishing  Keligious  Freedom  in  Virginia",  now  made 
Jefferson  draft  resolutions  in  which  Kentucky  and  Virginia 
declared  the  Union  to  be  only  a  compact  between  States,  each 
of  which  has  a  right  to  see  whether  the  terms  are  kept.  Thus 
the  position  of  champions  of  State  rights  was  assumed  by  the 
men  who  wished  to  keep  the  Government  strictly  constitu 
tional. 

X.  They  prevented  the  re-election  of  Adams  in  1800, 
when  his  party  had  broken  up  into  hostile  factions.  Hamilton 


14  THE    REVOLUTIONS   OF  1688   AND   1776. 

and  many  other  Federalists  wished  for  war  with  France.  There 
was  plenty  of  provocation)  but  Adams  saw  that  il  was  wiser  to 
reopen  friendly  relations  and  did  so  without  consulting  hii 
Cabinet.  He  lost  his  place  as  president,  but  he  always  called 
this  the  best  action  of  his  life,  and  he  desired  that  no  other 
should  be  recorded  above  his  grave.  His  chief  strength  was  in 
New  England,  where  manufacturers  wished  for  a  protective 
tariff,  and  clergymen  charged  his  opponent  with  infidelity. 
Jefferson  had  dared  to  befriend  Thomas  Paine  and  to  say  in 
the  "Notes  on  the  State  of  Virginia",  a  book  which  had  wide 
circulation,  that  'Difference  of  opinion  is  advantageous  in  re 
ligion";  and  that  "The  legitimate  powers  of  government  ex 
tend  to  sue1?  acts  only  as  are  injurious  to  others;  but  il  does  me 
no  injury  for  my  neighbor  to  say  there  are  twenty  gods  or  no 
God."  He  also  declared  that  he  should  oppose  the  establish 
ment  of  any  national  church,  for  he  had  "sworn  on  the  altar  of 
God  eternal  hostility  against  every  form  of  tyranny  over  the 
mind  of  man." 

His  open  hatred  of  slavery  did  not  deprive  him  of  a  single 
electoral  vote  in  Virginia,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  South  Caro- 
lina-or  Georgia.  He  also  carried  New  York,  but  New  Jersey 
and  Delaware  remained,  like  New  England,  Federalist,  and 
Pennsylvania,  Maryland  and  North  Carolina  were  divided. 
The  election  of  1800  was  the  triumph  of  the  principles  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence ,  the  Act  establishing  Religious 
Freedom,  and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  over  such 
practices  as  disfranchising  citizens  for  not  owning  real  estate, 
taxing  them  for  the  support  of  churches,  and  imprisoning  them 
for  blasphemy  against  John  Adams. 

The  Federalists  in  Congress  tried  to  give  the  presidency  to 
Aaron  Burr,  who  professed  opinions  resembling  Jefferson's, 
but  had  no  principles  whatever.  There  was  talk  of  resistance 
by  force,  but  nothing  worse  was  done  than  to  create  some  new 


THE    REVOLUTIONS  OF  1688   AND   1776. 


15 


courts,  in  time  to  have  the  salaries  assigned  to  members  of 
"the  gentlemen's  party".  Such  commissions  were  made  out 
very  rapidly  on  the  evening  of  March  3, 1801;  and  it  is  said 
that  there  was  no  cessation  until  the  new  attorney-gsneral  en 
tered,  watch  in  hand,  and  announced:  "I  take  possession  here, 
for  it  is  twelve  o'clock  by  Mr.  Jefferson's  watch." 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


24Jan'63"G 


JAN  10  1963 


IN  STAC 

DEC 


RECEIVED 

'67 -2  P 


LD  21-100m-ll,'49(B7146sl6)476 


GAYLQBO    BROS. 

MAKERS 

SYRACUSE,  -  N.Y. 

PAT.  JAN.  Zl, 


VB  37315 


22126$ 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


